Monday, August 3, 2009

Cocktails on a stick!

Ever been torn between the urge to have a frosty cocktail or a popsicle? Now you can do both.

Liq boozsicles come in two flavors -- strawberry daiquiri and margarita. Spinal Tap fans may bemoan the absence of "love pump," but it's early; cocktails-on-a-stick are currently only available in Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

I'll bemoan the decline of Western civilization in a moment, but first the question is, how do they taste?

Given what they are, they're actually quite good. The strawberry daiquiri is sweet and smooth. I didn't love it, but I'm a wine guy who doesn't love strawberry daiquiris anyway; it had no off flavors and I couldn't taste any alcohol. My wife, who has a sweet tooth, loved it, and at 6% alcohol (more than a beer, less than a real cocktail), she caught the right level of buzz.

After trying the mild-mannered strawberry daiquiri first, the margarita was a shock: It's intensely flavored, with potent lime and tequila flavors and a noticeable saltiness. It's nowhere near as sweet as you'd expect a boozsicle to be. Once again, I'm not generally a frozen margarita guy, but I've been served cocktail reimaginings like this at Michelin-starred restaurants and this one would not embarrass a top chef. I don't know if I'm going to give up drinking reposado tequila straight, but this is probably the best popsicle I've ever had.

It should be: these Liqs sell only in bars for $6 to $8 each. Glacial Brands, the manufacturer, claims they're available at The W Hotel (Phoenix), Trump Hotel (Miami), The Hilton Hotel (Ft. Lauderdale), Deauville Hotel (Miami), and Marriott Harbor Beach (Ft. Lauderdale). In those hot places, I can imagine coming in from an afternoon stroll and having a Liq by the pool.

Glacial Brands claims to use premium rum and tequila (though they don't name brands) and real fruit and juices. Based on the taste, I believe them. Quite honestly, I expected to take one liq of each of these and then mock them. But for what they are, they're actually good.

Now, for my Republican readers: Yes, Liq represents another step in the decline of Western civilization, with peddling booze to young people. I mean, shouldn't 21-year-olds have to drink shots of cheap booze like we did? It's going to take them hours to consume enough hooch at 6.0% alcohol from these to get really polluted. What's the world coming to?

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